Dry itchy scalp drained my confidence

Jane was prescribed steroids by her doctor to treat her dry itchy scalp until she was in her teens. Taking steroids for such a long time worried Jane and she began to look for alternative treatments.

BYJane Hadfield 3 July, 2007

Jane Hadfield, 28, is a Financial Analyst from Surrey. She has suffered from a chronic dry itchy scalp since the age of four. Jane says:“I was on all sorts of different steroid treatments throughout my childhood which all gradually began to become less effective over time until I finally decided I was taking so many so often that I had to stop. However when I did stop my dry itchy scalp got really bad. I got patchy, itchy, flaky build up all over my scalp and around my neck and my hair was constantly full of skin flakes, even when I had just washed it, that would cover my clothes. I was desperately looking for something else to treat my dry scalp because it was undermining my self-confidence and ruining my social life as well as distracting me from my work.””Over the years I have tried most of the over the counter treatments with limited success, some have cleared it up for a while but it has always come back.””For all of my adult life I haven’t been able to wear dark colours due to the flaking from my scalp – so in the middle of winter I’ll still be dressed in creams, whites and beiges, its very limiting. Its also very awkward because my job is very corporate and so I have to be well presented, which for most people means dark suits. But I had to go shopping for summer colours in the middle of winter and would often end up wearing the same things as there wasn’t much choice.””The itching has been so bad at times that I have had to run cold water over my head to stop me tearing my hair out, but when I’m at work I can’t do this and I find the itching really distracting.””I also found the hairdressers a nightmare, I like my hair to be well groomed but I felt embarrassed about going to the hairdressers, I didn’t like them touching it, and found the products they used on my hair really irritated my eczema and my dry itchy scalp and I would often come out with a bad flare up after a haircut.”

“When I saw an advert in my local paper to join a trial of a new natural shampoo & conditioner for people with very dry itchy scalps I immediately contacted the company as I was so desperate for a cure.”

“The shampoo & conditioner were sent out to me a few days later and I started using them straight away. The shampoo was very mild, unlike the harsh products my hair had been used to and it took about a week to adjust.”

“After that week I started seeing some fantastic results. The dry patches that I have always had were reduced and stopped itching, I was delighted! I continued to use the shampoo & conditioner daily for the next five weeks and it really improved the condition of my scalp. It was a lot less itchy and the flakes had gone from large disks of skin to quite fine small flakes and the quantity had reduced by about 60%. I have even started to experiment with wearing dark colours. I wore a gorgeous navy suit the other day and at lunch time I went to check for flakes in the bathroom and I could only see a few tiny ones in my shoulders which I’m sure were almost invisible to most people. I have also been able to start going to the hairdressers regularly and have more styled cuts as a result.”

“Now my scalp has cleared up dramatically I am a lot more confident, I no longer find myself worrying if people can see flakes in my hair or whether I have flakes all over my shoulders. The Dry Scalp Shampoo has really worked for me and I would recommend it to anyone with a sensitive dry itchy scalp.”